MONTREAL - Pop quiz: What unfortunate distinction does Olivier Le Jeune hold in Canadian history?
Le
Jeune was the first recorded black slave in New France, brought to
Canada from Africa in the 17th century when he was a child.
If you didn’t know the answer, you aren’t alone.
The
story of blacks in Canada doesn’t form part of the national narrative
and is outside the mainstream of what most people learn, says Lawrence
Hill, author of the acclaimed historical novel The Book of Negroes.
Hill
told students on Thursday at École secondaire Antoine-de-Saint-Exupéry
in St. Léonard that he finds most Canadians and Quebecers know more
about the history of blacks in the United States than they do about the
topic in their own country and province.
As a teenager, Hill said
he was never taught about the history of blacks in Canada. If it wasn’t
for his parents, who had written books on the subject, “I wouldn’t have
even known that slavery existed in Canada.”
Hill’s appearance
marked the launch of Black History Month at the high school and also the
launch of a French-language Black History in Canada Education Guide, a
teaching tool that draws on The Book of Negroes.
The guide was
developed by the Historica-Dominion Institute, a charitable organization
dedicated to Canadian history and citizenship. It contains discussion
questions related to Hill’s novel as well as a black history in Canada
timeline, that notes key milestones such as the abolishment of slavery
in the British colonies that took effect in 1834 and the election in
1866 of Mifflin Gibbs to the Victoria Town Council, making him the first
black politician in Canada.
The English guide was sent to more
than 3,000 schools across Canada last year. The new French guide has
gone to 1500 French and bilingual schools in the country.
“It’s an
honour for the novel but more importantly it’s a tool that hopefully
teachers or students can use if they want to learn more,” Hill said in
an interview.
Many teachers and educators have so little
information about black history, Hill said. “Dozens of times in my life
teachers have come to me and said ‘I’d love to do something about black
history or talk about black literature but where can I find anything?’”
“As
Mr. Hill said, it seems that Canadians know a lot about (American)
black history but we don’t know enough about our own black history,”
said Brigitte D’Auzac, senior manager of programming for the
Historica-Dominion Institute. “So it was important for the institute to
make sure that we talk about it,” D’Auzac said. “Let’s get every kid in
school aware of this. And let’s talk about our history. It’s important
and we need to know about it.”
Hill told students how he was born
and raised in Toronto, the son of a black father and white mother who
had emigrated from the U.S. Fluent in French, and a graduate of
Université Laval, Hill talked to students about his novel, weaving in
historical information like the first big wave of black immigration in
1783 to Nova Scotia at the end of American Revolutionary War—and how,
faced with racial discrimination, slavery and segregation in their new
location, one-third of the Black loyalists ultimately left Halifax in 15
boats to create the colony of Freetown in Sierra Leone. “The first big
exodus of blacks from the Americas to return to live in Africa came from
Halifax,” in 1792, Hill said.
He also read an excerpt from The Book of Negroes, which has been translated into French with the title Aminata.
Hill
said it’s great to see more and more people in Quebec have learned
about Marie-Joseph Angélique, a black slave who was accused in 1734 of
setting fire to her master’s house, which also destroyed half of what
was then Montreal. (Angélique was convicted and executed.) For the
longest of times, people in Quebec seemed to know nothing about the
history of slavery in Montreal or Quebec City, Hill said. “After all,
the first slave in Canada is in Quebec City in 1628–a boy from
Madagascar, Olivier Le Jeune.”
Hill said he believes there is
often an “unconscious resistance” to looking at our own history. How is
it that many Canadians, especially those who, say, live in Ontario, will
know about the underground railroad, which sort of makes people feel
good because we feel “we’re welcoming poor, fugitive American slaves and
giving them their freedom here.
“So it’s convenient to know about
that. And if a Canadian does know a tiny bit about black history in
Canada they’re likely to trumpet the underground railroad,” Hill said.
“But very few people can talk about, or know anything about the black
Loyalists or them being so terribly mistreated in Nova Scotia that they
left en masse 10 years later.”

First, make no mistake: It was Native Americans who spearheaded and
bore the brunt of the campaign against the TransCanada Keystone XL
Pipeline.The news media continue to
engage in loathsome racist marginalization by ignoring Native
involvement in this struggle, touting the opposition of
environmentalists. With all due respect to our environmentalist allies,
they were following the Indian lead, but it was Native Americans of
Canada and the U.S. in the forefront of this protracted struggle, which
is still far from over. Nonetheless, a major battle has been won.The
rejection of the pipeline by President Obama was a tremendous victory
for tribal nations of the U.S. and Canada. Obama listened to the voices
of this land’s first peoples. In early December, Native leaders
presented the president with the “Mother Earth Accord” that outlined the
unique U.S. Tribal and Canadian First Nations objections to the
pipeline.In
Alberta province, for example, it was pointed out that the extraction of
tar sands oil had already been linked to a 30 percent elevated rate of
rare cancers and autoimmune diseases in First Nations communities
downstream from the project. The Mother Earth Accord was developed this
past September at the Rosebud Sioux Tribe Emergency Summit. More than 20
tribal nations and private landowners, private citizens, environmental
organizations and Canadian political parties endorsed the accord in
opposition to the pipeline.There
were, of course, the naysayers to this decision, led by Republicans
with inane, vociferating, hypocritical temerity. Perhaps, the Obama
administration is finally realizing that attempting to work with them is
akin to entering a Faustian compact.Republicans
contended that the project would have produced tens of thousands of
jobs. Balderdash. With the exception of possibly a couple of thousand
temporary construction jobs along the pipeline route from Canada to the
Texas Gulf Coast, there was little prospective job creation. Further,
latest studies estimate that the pipeline would create fewer than 100
permanent jobs.

Pundits continue to downplay the massive coalition led by Native
people with such comments as Obama is “pandering to a small
environmental constituency.” They deny that Native people are a
political force to be reckoned with.There
had recently been massive demonstrations against the pipeline at the
White House. In a two-week, August-September protest mostly by American
Indians, 1,253 were arrested. On Nov. 6, more than 12,000 demonstrated
in a “human chain” protest that encircled the White House! Incredibly,
neither massive protest was reported by the TV or newspaper media, a
woeful commentary on the stranglehold exerted on news by corporate
moguls.The
proposed pipeline would have been deadly for Canadian tribal nations and
at least five U.S. Native American reservations and six states.
President Obama is to be lauded for his disapproval of this heinous
enterprise. Further, this rejection represents a history-making Native
American victory over the mammon-obsessed jackals of corporate greed.

Friday, January 27, 2012

Republican presidential hopeful Ron Paul has consistently denied
having written — or even read — the inflammatory racist and anti-gay
remarks that went out under his name in newsletters he published in the
early 1990s. Although numerous associates agree that Paul does not hold
racist views, however, it appears that he may have known more about the
racist articles than he has been willing to admit.
The Washington Postreported
on Friday that three people with first-hand knowledge of Paul’s
operations say “he was deeply involved in the company that produced the
newsletters, Ron Paul & Associates, and closely monitored its
operations, signing off on articles and speaking to staff members
virtually every day.”
“It was his newsletter, and it was under his name, so he always got
to see the final product. … He would proof it,’’ former company
secretary Renae Hathway told the Post.

According to these sources, the main author of the racist passages
was Lew Rockwell, who was then the vice president of Paul’s company.
The Post also details how closely entangled Paul’s political
career, his business ventures, and members of his own family were during
those years. According to one source, who chose to remain anonymous,
Paul and his associates made a deliberate choice in the late 1980s to
increase sales of the newsletter by making it more provocative.
“It was playing on a growing racial tension, economic tension, fear
of government,’’ the source stated “I’m not saying Ron believed this
stuff. It was good copy. Ron Paul is a shrewd businessman.’’
Cato Institute President Ed Crane, who frequently lunched with Paul
during this period, similarly told the paper that when the two of them
discussed how to increase the circulation of Paul’s newsletters, they
agreed that “people who have extreme views” were most likely to respond.
Paul told Crane his best response had come when he used a mailing list
from the racist and anti-Semitic newspaper, Spotlight.
If that was the strategy, it apparently worked. According to the Post,
political disclosure forms show that between 1984 and 1995, Paul went
from being up to $765,000 in debt to having a net worth of up to $3.3
million.
A Paul spokesperson contacted by the Post for comment expressed doubt about the assertions made by Crane and the other sources.

A local newspaper in the western Ukrainian city of Ternopil
illustrated its front-page story on Tuesday with a photomontage of
monkeys groping a woman to depict African and Arab men who had allegedly
gotten into a bar fight. Our Observer, a Congolese student living in
Ternopil, tells us this has deeply upset African students at his
university, who he says are frequently the target of racist attacks.

Nova Ternopil's article explains that police had to
intervene after an African man and an Arab man got into a fight
involving a woman at a local bar on the weekend. The headline reads,
“Arabs and negroes fight over our prostitutes.” The photomontage shows
two monkeys groping a white woman in the foreground. In the background, a
group of black men are sitting around a table, having a drink.
According to our Observer, the men pictured are students at a local
university and had nothing to do with the alleged incident.

We have not yet been able to reach Nova Ternopil's editors for comment. As soon as we do, we will publish it here.

The men circled in red are local university students with no connection to the alleged fight

“Ukrainian students reading the newspaper laughed at the picture”

Beckhs
Love is a Congolese student studying agricultural technology at Ivan
Puluj Technical University in Ternopil. He’s lived there for four years.

I
was in class yesterday when the university’s foreign student advisor
called and told me to come to his office as soon I could. When I got
there, he asked me to close the door behind me. He showed me the
newspaper. I couldn’t believe what I saw on the front page. I was
shocked. First of all, why would a story about a bar fight be on the
front page? You would think that would be reserved for real news.

He asked me if I recognized the men in the background of the photo.
I did – I knew all of them; they are my fellow students. He told me
that this was awful, but that it was a provocation, and asked me to talk
to these students and ask them to stay calm. Because I speak better
Ukrainian than most African students - of which there are about 300 at
our university - I often act as a coordinator between the administration
and the francophone students.

When I told the students in the picture about the article, they
rushed out to the buy the newspaper. It was easy to find. It turned out
the newspaper used an old photo of them for their montage – it was taken
long before this fight allegedly took place. We have no idea how the
newspaper got their hands on it.

Back at the university, we saw other students, Ukrainians, reading
the newspaper. I saw some of them laughing at the picture. I told them,
“You think this is funny? You think this is normal? In a few months,
Ukraine will be hosting the Euro 2012 football championship, which is
going to attract lots of foreigners. You can’t act like you’re in a
Soviet state anymore.”

I really don’t know why they even give visas to African students,
since it’s clear they don’t want us here. I want parents back in Africa
to know they should stop sending their children here. At university,
we’re excluded. In my class, we African students always sit together –
few Ukrainian students will speak to us.

“We live in fear”

Outside university, it’s even worse. I usually go straight home,
because it’s dangerous to be out at night. Black people get insulted and
assaulted all the time. We live in fear. Not long ago, I was coming
back from the supermarket and a group of men just knocked me down and
hit me over and over. They took off when I started to scream. There’s no
point reporting it to the police – the first thing they always say when
an African man walks through the door is, ‘We’re going to deport you.’

Racism is a reality of everyday life in Ukraine. I recently went to
make some photocopies with a Ukrainian student. He asked the store
owner for a stapler; he gave him use of it, free of charge. I went back
by myself the next day; suddenly, I had to pay to use the stapler.

It’s hard for us to defend ourselves, because there’s a real
language barrier for most of us. But I hope we will be able to get a
meeting with the newspaper editor, so he can explain himself.”

Gordon Hodson, a psychologist at Brock University in
Ontario, Canada, served as lead researcher for a study that had some
not so surprising results. According to his team’s findings, there is a significant positive correlation between prejudice, low intelligence, and social conservative ideology, reports LiveScience.SEE ALSO: How GOP Racism Has Become The Norm
Not only are children with low IQs more likely to be prejudiced
adults, Hodson uncovered a hidden bias that exposes the relationship
between prejudice and conservatives:

The research finds that children with low intelligence
are more likely to hold prejudiced attitudes as adults. These findings
point to a vicious cycle. Low-intelligence adults tend to gravitate
toward socially conservative ideologies,
the study found. Those ideologies, in turn, stress hierarchy and
resistance to change, attitudes that can contribute to prejudice, Hodson
wrote in an e-mail to LiveScience.
Prejudice is extremely complex and multifaceted, making it critical that any factors contributing to bias are uncovered and understood.

Briain Nosek, a social and cognitive psychologist at
the University of Virginia, believes that this study will trigger a
storm of controversy:

They’ve pulled off the trifecta of controversial topics,
said Brian Nosek, a social and cognitive psychologist at the University
of Virginia who was not involved in the study. When one selects
intelligence, political ideology, and racism and looks at any of the relationships between those three variables, it’s bound to upset somebody.

Interestingly, politics seemed to be the connecting force between
“brains” and “bias.” The study found that the inability of children with
low intelligence to understand and empathize with the perspective of
others — especially those of different ethnicity and class — was a clear
indication that they would embrace right-wing ideology:

Polling data and social and political science research do
show that prejudice is more common in those who hold right-wing ideals
that those of other political persuasions. The unique contribution
here is trying to make some progress on the most challenging aspect of
this,” Nosek said, referring to the new study. It’s not that a
relationship like that exists, but why it exists.

The working definition for “social conservatives” for this study’s
purposes relied upon participants’ agreement with statements such as:

‘Family life suffers if mum is working full-time,’ and
‘Schools should teach children to obey authority.’ Attitudes toward
other races were captured by measuring agreement with statements such
as, ‘I wouldn’t mind working with people from other races.’

Hodson is very clear that he doesn’t want people to think that he is
characterizing all conservatives as unintelligent. He points to the
example of men, in general, being taller than women — though there are
some women who are taller than men — as evidence of the generality of
the study.

My speculation is that it’s not as simple as their model
presents it, Nosek said. I think that lower cognitive capacity can
lead to multiple simple ways to represent the world, and one of those
can be embodied in a right-wing ideology where ‘people I don’t know
are threats’ and ‘the world is a dangerous place‘. … Another simple way would be to just assume everybody is wonderful.

In simplified terms for any conservatives that may be reading, this
study seems to prove the popular wisdom that all Republicans may not be
racists, but all racists are more than likely Republican.

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Some children at a Gwinnett elementary school played a tag-like game as
slaves and slave catchers at recess, and a teacher allegedly
participated, Channel 2 Action News reported.

The incident happened at Camp Creek Elementary School in Lilburn last week, the report said.
Three children and their parents told Channel 2 that a teacher organized and participated in the game.
The schools spokesperson said that there was a game, but the teacher did not participate.
The school district released a statement to Channel 2 saying, "The
school district looked into concerns regarding four students who
participated in a playground activity. The district determined that the
activity was student initiated and that allegations regarding the
teacher's involvement were unfounded."
Ericka Lasley told Channel 2 that her 8-year-old daughter said she
was a slave and other students were slave catchers during a game similar
to tag. The third-grade student said the teacher proposed the game
based on what the class is learning.
"She would sit on the bench and the slave catchers would come up to the door and ask did she have any slaves," the girl said.
Charvia Rivers said her children told similar versions of what happened.
The parents told Channel 2 that the game is inappropriate and insensitive.
A district spokesman said diversity training is planned for all staff members.
Earlier this month, a teacher at Beaver Ridge Elementary School resigned and apologized after writing slavery-themed math questions for a third-grade homework assignment.

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

When it comes to commenting on the Obamas and African-Americans, French Elle needs to fermez la bouche!
In an blog post titled “Black Fashion Power,” writer Nathalie Dolivo managed to insult American blacks as a whole while offering left-handed compliments to the First Lady Michelle Obama for taking on the Jackie O role in a “jazzy” way.
The writer imagines that the Obamas are the first to bring true style to African-Americans.

“In this America led for the first time a black president, the chic has
become a plausible option for a community so far pegged to its codes
[of\] streetwear,” she wrote.
Things get even more baffling when she dubs the Obamas the
“black-geoisie” who dress "white" but still maintain their ‘blackness”
with symbols.
“There is always a classic twist, with a bourgeois ethnic reference (a
batik-printed turban/robe, a shell necklace, a ‘créole de rappeur’) that
recalls the roots,” she said.
While Michelle Obama has been known to wear African-influenced jewelry
and support young black designers, it's far less accurate to define her
wardrobe as" batik robes and turbans."
The backlash has been swift and severe.
“How, in 2012, in a France where there are at least three million
blacks and mixed people, can you write such nonsense,” a commenter told French Elle.
“You are too kind when you write that in 2012 we have incorporated the
white codes…what do you think, in 2011, we dressed in hay and burlap
bags?”
To black women in France, thearticle was upsetting but not surprising.
“The saddest thing is that this stupid journalist thought she was doing something positive for us,” a Fashion Bomb Daily
commenter said. “ I’m sure that even educated French people wouldn’t
see any offense in this. Yes this what we Black women in France live!!!
Sad truth.”

DURHAM, N.C.— A group of about two dozen Duke University students
urged administrators Tuesday to create a better climate and provide more
financial support for black students, saying they’ve been disappointed
so far in how top officials have reacted to their viewpoints.
The students, almost all of whom were black, unsuccessfully sought a
meeting with university President Richard Brodhead at his campus office
in hopes of explaining a document they describe as a call to action for
the prestigious, private southern school.
Concerns range from the future location of a black culture center to
the lack of support for a black student group’s annual event and a
recent study that suggested African-American students switched to
less-difficult majors.
“The university has affirmed through media outlets that it has a
commitment to meeting the needs of all its students, including black
students,” said Nana Asante, a senior psychology major and president of
the Black Student Alliance, who led the procession Tuesday. “We have yet
to witness any action that reflects this supposed truth.”
The most immediate cause for students’ anger is an as-yet unpublished
study by Duke researchers saying black students match the GPA of whites
over time in part because they switch to majors that require less study
time and have less-stringent grading standards. Opponents of
affirmative action are citing the study in a case they want the U.S.
Supreme Court to consider.
But the students say the research is just one example of an
environment in which many black students feel uncomfortable. The
document they gave to administrators cites concerns over the future
location of the Mary Lou Williams Center for Black Culture and the
status of the Black Student Alliance invitational weekend, an annual
event the students say is in jeopardy because of the administration’s
lack of support.
“These are really just symptoms of a contentious and strained racial climate here,” Asante said.
Some of the students’ recommendations include establishing an
endowment to create a stable funding source for cultural events and
academic programs involving black students, and for the creation of a
special university working group to assess whether blacks feel the
climate at Duke is unwelcoming.
Brodhead was not in his office Tuesday morning, but an administrator
came out to shake each student’s hand and promised to pass the document
to the president.
“We welcome their call to action and we welcome their
recommendations,” university spokesman Mike Schoenfeld said.
Administrators plan to discuss the issues with students, he said.
“These are not new issues at Duke,” Schoenfeld said. “Many people
have been working for a long time to create a positive environment for
African-American students at Duke.”
The Durham university has about 6,500 undergraduate students, about
47 percent of them white and 10 percent black. The largest group of
non-whites is Asian-American, representing 21 percent of the
undergraduate population. The university community has been embroiled in
racially charged debates before, as during the fallout over accusations
of rape — later found to be false — leveled at white Duke lacrosse
players by a black woman six years ago. Bad feelings over that case
linger in Durham to this day.
Asante said the students will wait to hear the university’s response
to their call to action before deciding on what steps to take next.
“We will do what is necessary to ensure that our voices are heard,” she said.

INDIGENOUS Australians should be recognised in the body of the
constitution and racist sections should be scrapped, an expert panel has
recommended.
Labor has promised to hold a national referendum on the constitutional recognition of indigenous Australians on or before the next federal election, due in 2013.
An expert panel of 19 indigenous leaders, politicians and legal minds
travelled the country last year holding public meetings on the issue.
They presented their report to the government at the National Gallery in Canberra on Thursday.
The panel recommends recognition should take place in the body of the constitution, rather than by inserting a new preamble.
“There is too much uncertainty in having two preambles,” the report says.
It recommended inserting a new section (51A) to recognise that “the
continent and its islands now known as Australia were first occupied by
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.”
The new section will also acknowledge the continuing relationship of indigenous people with their traditional lands and waters.
It will also respect the continuing cultures, languages and heritage
of indigenous people and acknowledge the need to secure their
advancement.
The expert panel also called for new section (116A) to prohibit racial discrimination.
“The panel came to the view that there is a case for moving on from
the history of constitutional non-recognition of Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander peoples and racial discrimination and for affirming that
racially discriminatory laws and executive action have no place in
contemporary Australia,” the report said.
The panel also proposes a new section (127A) stating the national
language of Australia is English while recognising that “Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander languages are the original Australian languages, a
part of our national heritage.”
Prime Minister Julia Gillard said changing the constitution would
recognise the “unique and special place of Aboriginal people and
strengthen the identity of our nation”.
“It’s a great opportunity to continue the journey of reconciliation that began with the previous referendum in 1967,” she said.
“To constitutional recognition, I urge our whole nation to say, ‘yes’.”
The panel urged the government to hold the referendum as a single
question, consult widely about the timing and fund an extensive
education program about the issue.
It also said the referendum should not be held at the same time as a vote on constitutional recognition of local governments.
“For many Australians, the failure of a referendum on recognition of
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples would result in confusion
about the nation’s values, commitment to racial non-discrimination, and
sense of national identity,” the report said.
“The negative impact on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples would be profound.”
Outdated discriminatory sections recommended for the cutting board
include: section 25, which says an Australian voter could be excluded
from voting on the basis of race and section 51(xxvi) on “race power”.
The panel said aspiration of sovereign status had been a significant
issue to emerge during public consultations with indigenous people.
But the panel believes recognising the sovereign status of indigenous
people would be highly contested and likely to jeopardise broad public
support. - AAP

In 1981, a lawyer tried to subpoena Ron Paul to testify in the trial of Don Black,
a Grand Wizard for the Ku Klux Klan who would later go on to found the
white supremacist, neo-Nazi website, Stormfront. Black was charged along
with two other Klansmen with planning to violently overthrow the small
Caribbean country of Dominica in what they called “Operation Red Dog.”
While a judge refused to subpoena Paul, Don Black would come back to
haunt him many years later.
In 1981 a group of American and Canadian white supremacists lead by
Klansman and mercenary, Michael (Mike) Perdue planned on taking over a
small West Indian country called Dominica by overthrowing the government
and Prime Minister Eugenia Charles and restoring its previous prime
minister, Patrick Johns into power. The group planned to create an Aryan paradise in Dominica and make money through casinos, cocaine and brothels.
On the day the group of white supremacists were supposed to travel to
Dominica, they were arrested by ATF agents and were found with over
thirty automatic weapons, shotguns, rifles, handguns, dynamite,
ammunition, a confederate flag and a Nazi flag. The plan would be dubbed
“The Bayou Of Pigs” after the failed invasion of Cuba.
The leader of the group, Michael Perdue, would plead guilty to
planning the coup and turned state’s evidence. Perdue would testify that
several other people helped organize and fund the coup and that two
Texas politicians were aware of the plan. Among those Perdue implicated
were infamous white supremacist, David Duke, former Texas Governor, John
Connally and Congressman, Ron Paul whom he claimed knew about the plot.
Connally was credited with helping Paul win his first congressional election.
A judge refused to subpoena Paul and Connally despite the fact that
Perdue had claimed that both of them were aware of the plot. Don Black’s
friend and fellow KKK Grand Wizard, David Duke was called to testify
before a grand jury but claimed that he would take the Fifth Amendment
and never testified. While Duke was never charged with a crime, several
books points to Duke as the organizer who connected Perdue to the other
mercenary Klansmen and the people who funded their endeavor. (123) Everyone else implicated by Perdue was charged with the plot.
Perdue implicated three men as funders of the plot, L.E. Matthews of
Jackson, Mississippi, James C. White of Houston, and David Duke’s close
friend and backer, J.W. Kirkpatrick. Kirpatrick would kill himself
before he could stand trial and White and Matthews would be acquitted in
court. Former Prime Minister of Dominica, Patrick Johns would be
sentenced to 12 years in prison for his part of the plot. Michael
Perdue, Don Black and seven other Klansmen would be sentenced to only 3
years in prison.
Ron Paul has never made a statement denying knowledge of the plot
despite the fact that he was implicated by Perdue and almost subpoenaed.
Two of the people involved in the plot, Don Black and David Duke have
gone on to become two of the most prominent white supremacists of the
modern era, and also two of Paul’s most controversial supporters.Top 10 Racist Ron Paul Friends, Supporters
Paul would be once again tied to Don Black 26 years after the Bayou
Of Pigs. After it was revealed that Black donated $500 dollars to the
Ron Paul Presidential campaign, Ron Paul’s campaign refused to give it
back. Paul was photographed with Black and his son by David Duke’s former assistant, Jamie Kelso who was an organizer for Ron Paul
and the owner of white supremacist sites, WhiteNewsNow.com and
TheWhiteRace.com and a moderator for Black’s neo-Nazi website,
Stormfront.
Black would become one of Paul’s most enthusiastic supporters and
helped rally the white supremacist community around Paul, through
Stormfront. Paul would praise another Operation Red Dog planner, David
Duke in his newsletters and Duke would return the favor calling him “our king” and endorsing him for President.
This would not be the first time Paul was tied to white supremacists. In 80s, Paul claimed that the best source of his campaign donations
came from a list from notorious neo-Nazi, Willis Carto’s publication,
The Spotlight. In the 90s, Paul’s newsletters were originally discovered
from an online neo-Nazi directory.
As recently as 2006, Paul was scheduled to appear on David Duke’s white
supremacist protégé, James Edwards’ radio show, “The Political
Cesspool.”Ron Paul’s White Supremacist Radio Connections
Given the scrutiny given to presidential candidates, shouldn’t Paul’s
connection to an attempted violent invasion of a small island by white
supremacists be re-investigated. If the media investigates every
accusation of affairs or sexual harassment for Herman Cain or Newt
Gingrich, shouldn’t they investigate accusations that Paul knew about a
white supremacist plot to violently overthrow the government of a small
Black island, especially with Paul’s other connections to white
supremacists?

Ron Paul has made no secret the fact that he thought that the South
was right in the Civil War. Here he is giving a speech in front of a
giant Confederate Flag about why he believes the North was wrong in the
Civil War and why the South was right.
Ron Paul is a neo-Confederate, and proud member of the Ludwig Von
Mises Institute, which has been labeled as a neo-Confederate
organization. In the video he claims that the North should have paid to
buy slaves from southern slave owners to avoid the war, rather than the
South renouncing slavery. Paul also fails to bring up the fact that it
was the South that started the war by attacking the North in 1861.
Ron Paul was also was the only member of congress to vote against
honoring the Civil Rights Act Of 1964 in on its 40th anniversary in
2004. Paul would also claim that he wouldn’t have voted for it at the
time, putting him on the side of the racists in both the fight against
slavery and the fight against Jim Crow segregation, the two defining
struggles of Black people in America.
Several Ron Paul supporters have asked that the video be taken down,
from the pro-Confederate channel, Patriot Review but Patriot Review
believes that the video could help Paul win South Carolina. If they do
take it down, Charles Johnson at Little Green Footballs has downloaded a copy of the video.

Racist Hollywood decides to make a "Spanish language" film choosing a White American actor Will Ferell to play a Mexican/Latino character Armando Alvarez who is the lead, protagonist role. Latinos make up 16-17% of the American population and make up the largest minority group in the U.S.

Thursday, January 19, 2012

*In the words of Yogi Berra, it’s deja vu all over again.
Beyonce is back under the microscope after giving birth to Blue Ivy. A
new photo of the superstar is featured on her website and on
promotional ads for her latest album that captures Bey with a lighter,
brighter skin tone.
At first glance you could mistake her for a lightly airbrushed white
skinned Victoria’s Secret model. But then with a closer look you notice
it’s actually the singer.
With the blonde hair and beaming camera lights, it’s hard to tell the woman is Black.RELATED: Is Bleaching One’s Skin a Product of Black Self-Hatred?
Critics all over the net and in the press are questioning the
singer’s motives, as her image has slowly began to fade into white. Some
say the whitewashing of her images is sending a damaging message to the
world, but most importantly to Black youth.
Anthony Blades, founder of race blog, ThisIsYourConscious.com, is confused about Bey’s purpose.
“It’s like, Again? Are we here again? I think in a lot of ways shes
culpable because there’s history there,” he writes. “She’s not saying
explicitly you have to lighten your skin, but it does carry that
inherent message.”INTERESTING READ: Why I believe Beyonce is betraying all black and Asian women
But this isn’t the first time the singer has received such strong criticism from her Black observers.
It seems that her image over the years have progressively become lighter and blonder.
Ugandan-born British writer Yasmin Alibhai-Brown shames the singer
for abusing her mass appeal, especially due to the affect it has on
young Black kids.
Read/learn MORE at NY Daily News.

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Some 5,000 protesters marched from the Knesset compound to Jerusalem's Independence Park, where a rally was held to protest racism
against Ethiopians. They carried Israeli flags and signs reading "Today it's me, tomorrow it's you" and "Stop racism."

Avihu Ayelo, one of the leaders of the community declared that "a new
page has been turned with this protest." He added, "The young, the men,
the women – we are one, one people. We demand our rights. It is
unacceptable we will not be allowed to raise our children as all other
Jews."

Rami Yaakov, a law
student, slammed the various Israeli governments claiming that they
"hurt us and trampled over us and our parents."

The leader of the march was 26-year-old student Mulet Hararo,
who started his own personal march from Kiryat Malakhi to Jerusalem on Monday.

"I am a third
generation of marchers," he told the crowd at the Independence Park. "My
grandmother, may she rest in peace, started marching following her hope
and the 3,000-year dream of all members of our community," he said
sending the crowd into a frenzy. "They marched for weeks in impassable
roads, men, women and children."

He added, "I am a proud Israeli of Ethiopian decent. I marched with
the Israeli flag because Israel is the home of all Jews. Israel is also
our home. I have no other land. I have marched for this holy land to
prove to myself it is mine, to prove to her that I love her. And it has
proved me it loves me back.``

Prior to the march he
said, "It was very heart warming to see people support me on my way to
Jerusalem. It gave me the strength to go on. My goal is to expose the
Israeli society and the Israeli establishment to the phenomenon of
racism."

Earlier, some Knesset members such as Labor chairman Shelly
Yachimovitch and Kadima Chairwoman Tzipi Livni came to support the
protesters. This was met by claims from some of the protesters that the
MKs were trying to ride the media wave.

The protest was also attended by leaders of the social protest Daphni Leef and Oren Pasternak.

Prior to the March,
Livni told Ynet that "the Ethiopian immigrants made aliyah for Zionist
purposes and lost many on the way to Israel. Now, instead of accepting
them we encounter severe racism in the Israeli society and a failure on
the government's part in dealing with the matter."

Yachimovitch claimed that the protest was a reaction to escalation in
racism against members of the Ethiopian community. "These young people
are taking matters into their own hands. This will bring a change in
Israeli society," she said.

A conservative African American pastor who founded a Tea Party organization in South Central L.A., says
he agrees with Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich that
many blacks lack a work ethic. The Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson's solution:
send them back to the plantation.
Peterson explained his plan to The Huffington Post's Black Voices,
saying, "one of the things that I would do is take all black people
back to the South and put them on the plantation so they would
understand the ethic of working. I'm going to put them all on the
plantation. They need a good hard education on what it is to work."
He made the comments when asked to comment on Gingrich's back and forth with Fox News correspondent Juan Williams, who questioned Gingrich
about what he called potentially insulting comments about the poor and
minorities during a Republican presidential debate Monday in South
Carolina.
Peterson told Black Voices Newt is absolutely right:

"Newt said that he would have black children, minority
children work as janitors at school. Working as a janitor would build
character, more so than the handouts so many of them like."
"I know some people take it personally because a whole lot of folks
don't like hearing the truth; they like to be in denial," he added. "Not
all black people, but most black people know, and white people know,
and black people say it more in private than they would in public, but
for the last 50 years or so, generations and generations of black people
have relied on the government or someone else to take care of them."
"Many black women have had babies out of wedlock and passed that on to
their daughters that if they have babies out of wedlock, they'll get
food stamps, free houses and your rent paid," Peterson said.

According to the report, Peterson himself grew up on an Alabama
plantation where his family had once been enslaved, and where members of
his family had later worked as share croppers.
He is no stranger to controversial rhetoric, having slammed the NAACP for what he called "spreading lies" about racism within the tea party
and being hypocrites for not speaking out when "black thugs attack
white Americans and commit crimes in flash mobs across the country."
Last summer, Peterson organized a South Central Los Angeles Tea Party rally, through his organization, Brotherhood Organization of a New Destiny (B.O.N.D), which was aimed at denouncing the NAACP, which Peterson called a "political pawn of the liberal-elite, white, racist Democratic Party and not really for the people."
Peterson told Black Voices he hopes that black people will ultimately
"hear the truth" and "pull away from the Democratic Party and its
godless leaders."

Fact: Most welfare recipients are non-black, adult and on welfare less than two years
at a time.
Summary
According to the statistics, whites form the largest racial group
on welfare; half of all welfare recipients leave in the first two years;
and teenagers form less than 8 percent of all welfare mothers.

Thelma Butler remembers well planning a quaint Valentine’s Day
dinner with her daughter, Pamela, in February 2009. The 79-year-old
Washington, D.C., native spoke to Pamela by phone just two days before
the big day, to make sure she had all the details exactly right.

“She
wasn’t married, but I knew she may have other plans anyway,’’ says
Butler. “I told her that I sure wanted to have dinner with her if it
were all right and she said, 'OK, Mom, I’ll pick you up at 5.'’’

That
phone call was the last time Thelma Butler spoke to her daughter, then
47, and nearly three years later, she still wonders why. Tomorrow night
the TV One network tackles Butler’s case in the first installment of the
docudrama Find Our Missing, a show dedicated to telling the stories of missing persons of color. Hosted by Law & Order veteran actress S. Epatha Merkerson, the show will feature accounts of two people who have gone missing without a trace in each hourlong episode.

African-Americans,
both men and women, make up one third of all missing-person cases but
seldom appear as the topic of choice on the national news or as the
focus of popular mystery cable shows such as Disappeared or 48 Hours. Africa-Americans make up roughly less than 12 percent of the total population.

“It’s
hard not to question the reasons why people of color aren’t quite
treated the same,’’ says Derrick Butler, Pamela’s brother and a board
member of the foundation Black and Missing. “The pain of not knowing
what happened to someone you love is overwhelming no matter your age,
your town, or skin color. It is a hurt that doesn’t get any better when
you never get answers.”

In the last decade Lacey Peterson, Natalie Holloway, and Chandra Levy
have all become household names in the wake of their tragic
disappearances and subsequent assumed murders. Magazines, cable news
shows, and made-for-television movies all featured the painful events
surrounding each of those women’s disappearances, police investigations,
and family reactions. In sharp contrast, the names of missing women of
color such as Stacy Nicole English, Phoenix Coldon, and Phylicia Barnes
remain mostly unknown to the masses, and uninteresting to major
networks.

“Nearly
one third of the missing in this country are black, yet their stories
are rarely told,’’ says Wonya Lucas, TV One president and CEO. “We hope
our TV One efforts will be dramatic television, but also hope these
profiles will help trigger the memory of someone who might have seen
something and feel compelled to come forward and help these families."

TV
One will complement the on-air series with social media and online
content on tvone.com, which also will share important information on
what to do if someone is missing, tips on preventing abductions, and the
names and links of organizations that welcome electronic tips on cases.

Some believe the lack of focus on missing minorities allowed the likes of Anthony Sowell
to kidnap and kill more than 11 women of color in a working-class,
east-side neighborhood in Cleveland in 2009. Sowell was charged in an
83-count indictment, which included counts of aggravated murder,
kidnapping, and abuse of a corpse. Several families of the murdered
women filed a $42 million lawsuit against the city of Cleveland last
year, claiming racial discrimination. They alleged that police did not
monitor Sowell, a registered sex offender, largely because he lived in a
black community.

“A
lot of the women he killed were minorities, and some had drug problems
or other issues,’’ says Donnita Carmichael, whose mother was among the
11 women found dead in Sowell’s home. “When you put race and possible
drug use or some other offense in there—you know no one is going to
care. That’s what happened with the women here, and that’s what happened
with my mother.’’

According
to the Butler family, Pamela had a history devoid of drug use or
run-ins with the law. In fact, she was a well-respected, longtime
program analyst with the Environmental Protection Agency when she
disappeared from inside her Washington, D.C., home. Her boyfriend was
the last to see her, and her family continues to suspect his
involvement.

“From
the time she went missing to today, he’s never called me to say a
thing,’’ says Thelma Butler. “We found a note in the house that he had
written to her saying he’d been looking for her but couldn’t find her.
But he never called her family to ask about her. What does that say?”

For Merkerson, an Emmy- and Golden Globe–winning actress, the opportunity to host Find Our Missing was something she didn’t have to think very hard about before accepting.

“You
want to be a part of the community and give back to the community,’’
says Merkerson, who for 16 years portrayed police Lt. Anita Van Buren on
NBC’s Law & Order. “There used to be a time when we looked
out for each other and spoke up when something was wrong. We have to get
back to those days where we care about the fate of our neighbor. That’s
what I hope this show will cause people to do. Look around and tell
someone if something isn’t right.’’

It
all may be too late for the Butler family, as the third anniversary of
Pamela’s disappearance nears. “I used to think I’d hear from her
again,’’ says her mother. “Even after the first year, I thought I’d hear
from her. I don’t feel that way now. I don’t think that anymore.’’

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Warner Bros is pushing the pause button on Akira. The project, which has been through several incarnations, is being shut
down in the face of casting, script and budget issues. The production
offices in Vancouver are being closed, with below-the-line talent and
crew told to stop working. “Everybody is being sent home,” according to
an insider.

Producers, who include Appian Way’s Jennifer Kiloran Davisson and Mad Chance’s Andrew Lazar, will hunker down with director Jaume Collet-Serra for the next two weeks to iron out the script. It is unclear if Harry Potter scribe Steve Kloves, who did a pricey rewrite on the project a year ago, will be brought in to help out.
If the issues cannot be resolved, the project could end up being shelved entirely, say insiders.
Collet-Serra already had halved the budget from the incarnation that Albert Hughes was going to direct. He now is working on a budget in the $90 million range. But with only Garrett Hedlund (Tron: Legacy) signed on to star, and Kristen Stewart, Ken Watanabe and Helena Bonham Carter
in various stages of dealmaking, the studio feels that the price tag is
still too high for a sci-fi project with that level of star wattage.
The goal, says an insider, is to bring the budget down to between $60
million and $70 million. However, another source close to the production
says the script, rather than the budget, has skidded the production.
The project, this person says, will remain in the $90 million range.
An adaptation of the classic Japanese manga, Akira is an
Americanized story set in a postapocalyptic New Manhattan, where a
motorcycle gang leader (Hedlund) must stop his brother and fellow gang
member from abusing his newly acquired telekinetic powers.

Akira already has “died” three times only to rise phoenix-like from the ashes. Ruairi Robinson
and Hughes were previously deep into the project as directors before
dropping off. Collet-Serra got the project green-lighted and has come
the closest to going before cameras.
This isn't the only Warner Bros. project whose budget is being scrutinized. Arthur and Lancelot, the period fantasy being directed by David Dobkin, also has come under increased budget pressure.
Sources close to the project say Akira isn't dead yet. “It’s a very resilient movie,” says one insider. “Warner Bros. just won’t let it die.”
Warner Bros. declined comment.

Jerry Bruckheimer, Walt Disney Studios and Johnny Depp may just supply
the proverbial silver bullet for the flagging New Mexico film industry.

On Friday, the Governor's Office announced that Disney/Bruckheimer's
film version of The Lone Ranger will indeed shoot in and around
Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Shiprock and other locales in the state starting
in February.

Gore Verbinski of Pirates of the Caribbean fame will direct Depp as Tonto and Armie Hammer as the Lone Ranger.

"It's great news," said Nick Maniatis, director of The New Mexico Film
Office. "This is a large-budget, major film that is putting faith into
the idea of coming back to the state of New Mexico to make movies.

"I think a major production like this coming here shows signs that we
are looking pretty healthy for film and TV production in the state."

He said the production will probably utilize Albuquerque Studios. He did
not think it would be shooting at the newly built Santa Fe Studios.

The producers reportedly cut the original budget of some $250 million
down to the $215 million range to get the go-ahead to film this new
version of the fabled story of a mysterious masked man who rode the
West, righting wrongs with his faithful Native American pal, Tonto.

Online blogs and entertainment venue reports have indicated that the
venerable Western hero and his partner would face off against American
Indian shamans and werewolves in this new version.

One such blog, citing Hollywood-Elsewhere as a source, noted that the
script is laden with special effects and described it as a kind of an
"Indian-spirituality werewolf movie — a.k.a., The Lone Ranger Meets the
Wolfman."

Which makes sense, given The Lone Ranger only uses silver bullets in his
guns, rides a horse called Silver and makes Silver wear silver
horseshoes. (Werewolves shy away from silver stuff.)

In a very early episode of the old Lone Ranger television series, the
Lone Ranger asks a miner pal of his to melt down silver ore into
bullets. "Silver bullets will serve as sort of a symbol," the Lone
Ranger explains. "Tonto suggested the idea ... a symbol that means
justice by law."

Created by George W. Trendle and written by Fran Striker, The Lone
Ranger originated as a radio show in 1933. In 1949, ABC turned it into a
long-running television series starring Clayton Moore as the title
character and Canadian Mohawk actor Jay Silverheels as Tonto.

The 1981 film The Legend of the Lone Ranger — a notable critical and commercial failure — also utilized New Mexico locales.

The new version was canceled and restarted over the past year while the issues of budget and locale were reworked.

Last autumn, Bruckheimer told The Hollywood Reporter that in trimming
his budget he had to consider the film incentives that various states
offered.

"We found that Louisiana gave us a better tax incentive than New Mexico —
that was another $8 million," he said. "We're still shooting in New
Mexico, and we might go to Louisiana."

Last year Gov. Susana Martinez urged state lawmakers to revamp the
state's film-incentive program, putting a $50 million cap on what the
state will pay out in one year to qualifying productions.

Though the $200 million production The Avengers shot in New Mexico last
year, the state attracted few other big-budget films in 2011.

Two longtime television series anchored in Albuquerque, Breaking Bad and
In Plain Sight, are slated to stop shooting this spring after
completing their final seasons.

The state played host to several television pilot shoots in 2011,
including A&E's Longmire, starring Australian actor Robert Taylor,
Lou Diamond Phillips and Katee Sackhoff. A&E has announced that it
has picked up Longmire as a series, though it has not yet announced
where it will film.

Maniatis said he couldn't yet confirm any possible upcoming film or
television projects, but noted, "I hope to announce a TV show shortly, a
project that's been here already, and we are excited it is coming
back."

He said he's a fan of the old Lone Ranger television show. "Now I have a
couple of boys and they will get to see the film shot in our state. The
fact that it will be shot in and around New Mexico will be great for
us. The production will hire over 300 New Mexico crew members, about 30
actors and 1,200 extras. It will have a big impact on the state."

Asked whether he knew anything about the werewolf angle, Maniatis laughed and said no.

Because it's important to remember that the Lone Ranger never shot to
kill, preferring to wound his adversaries and bring them to court
instead. How this humanitarian approach would work with werewolves,
should they remain in the new script, remains unclear.

Friday, January 13, 2012

Pittsburgh rapper Maxamillion has filed a $2.3 million lawsuit
against Wiz Khalifa with the claim that the emcee's breakthrough hit
"Black and Yellow" stole elements from his own tune "Pink N Yellow."
Maxamillion, otherwise known as Max Warren, says "Pink N Yellow" was
copyrighted in 2008, while Khalifa's hit was copyrighted last year.
Maxamillion's lawsuit, filed in federal court in Philadelphia, names
Khalifa along with two other songwriters and an assortment of record
companies and music publishers. Spokespersons for both Maxamillion and
Khalifa have not commented publicly on the lawsuit.

Thursday, January 12, 2012

JERUSALEM - Israeli rights groups and parliamentarians on Thursday
criticized a court ruling upholding a law that prevents Palestinians
married to Arab Israelis from obtaining Israeli citizenship or
residency.
In contrast, the ruling was welcomed from Israel's rightwing.
"It
is a dark day for the protection of human rights and for the Israeli
High Court," attorneys Dan Yakir and Oded Feller from the Association
for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) said in a statement.
ACRI was
one of three rights groups that had appealed to the High Court over a
law preventing the Palestinian spouses of Israeli citizens from
obtaining either Israeli citizenship or residency.
At present,
Palestinian men over 35 and women over 25 married to Israeli citizens
can only obtain short-term permits to be in Israel.
They have limited permission to work, but the permits must be regularly reviewed and they get no social benefits.
The
petitioners said the law violated the right of Palestinians married to
Arab-Israelis to a family life, but in a late-night ruling, the Supreme
Court said human rights could not override security concerns.
Six judges backed the controversial law, while five were opposed.
"Human
rights are not a prescription for national suicide," wrote Justice
Asher Grunis, who is poised to become the next Supreme Court president.
Yakir
and Feller accused the court of stamping "its approval on a racist law,
one that will harm the very texture of the lives of families whose only
sin is the Palestinian blood that runs in their veins."
In July
2003, parliament adopted a law limiting the right of non-nationals to
residency in the Jewish state, blocking citizenship for Palestinians
married to Arab-Israelis.
Initially applicable for one year, the
law was extended for security reasons but has been challenged by rights
groups on more than one occasion.
Arab-Israeli MP Jamal Zahalka, of the Balad party, said the court "had failed the test of justice."
"This
decision will encourage the racist groups in the Knesset (parliament)
to enact more anti-Arab, anti-democratic and anti-human rights laws," he
warned.
"The court's ruling pours oil on the fire of racism
burning in the Knesset and removes any fear that the Supreme Court will
repeal laws on grounds of unconstitutionality," he added.
Mohammed
Barakeh, an Arab-Israeli MP with the Hadash party, said the ruling
proved a "wave of racism" was sweeping through Israeli institutions.
"This
law, which differentiates between people in a repulsive, racist
fashion, sets standards for an individual's personal life and denies
Arabs their right to choose their life partner," he said.
Adalah,
which works to protect Arab-Israeli rights and was one of the
petitioners, also condemned the ruling, with its lawyers Hassan Jabareen
and Sawsan Zaher saying the law "has no parallel in any democratic
country in the world."
"The court has failed in its basic responsibility as a defender of the Palestinian national minority," they said in a statement.
Zehava
Galon, an MP from the left-wing Meretz party who filed her own appeal
to the Supreme Court against the law, echoed Adalah's criticism.
"The
Supreme Court has failed in its duty to defend the principle of
equality of all citizens before the law and to fight against racism,"
she told Israeli public radio.
Judicial commentator Moshe Negbi
said the ruling showed the Supreme Court had shown preference to the
state's Jewish character "at the detriment of its democratic character."
Zeev
Elkin, an MP with the right-wing Likud party, welcomed the court's
demonstration of "common sense" but expressed concern "that almost half
of the Supreme Court judges thought it was possible to open the gates of
Israel to tens of thousands of Palestinians" who were trying "to
implement the right of return by stealth through marriages of
convenience."
Right-wing student group Im Tirtzu welcomed the move
as a step to "prevent the state of Israel from being flooded by
hundreds of thousands of Palestinians."
The group denounced
outgoing Supreme Court President Dorit Beinish, who opposed the ruling,
describing it as "a disgrace" and expressing hope that her retirement
from the court in February "will signal an end of the anti-Zionist era
in the Supreme Court."

*MSNBC has suspended conservative commentator Pat Buchanan, according
to Phil Griffin, the network’s president. The suspension comes from
words in Buchanan’s book, “Suicide of a Superpower.” Buchanan has
stated that President Obama arrived to the White House as a result of
Affirmative Action and that the country “has been built, basically, by
white folks.”
Griffin seems concerned about two of the chapters in Buchanan’s book,
one of them titled “The End of White America,” and the other called
“The Death of Christian America.”
The MSNBC president is quoted in the AP as saying “Because of the
content of the book, I didn’t think it should be part of the national
dialogue, much less part of the dialogue on MSNBC.”
I’ve only met MSNBC President Phil Griffin one time. He and I were
on a panel together at the National Action Network Conference, hosted by
Rev. Al Sharpton. Griffin seems like a nice enough guy, and we haven’t
spoken since. But if we were to have another conversation, I’d ask him
one simple question: How in the holy hayell is a man like Pat Buchanan still on your payroll?
I remember Columbia University Professor Marc Lamont Hill being fired
from Fox News after one very quick, dirty and misleading smear
campaign. I recall Rev. Jesse Jackson being fired from CNN because he
had a child out of wedlock. Yet, Pat Buchanan has spent the last 40
years speaking and acting in ways that would put David Duke to shame,
and the network continues to treat him like he’s just a regular guy.
In spite of how hard Buchanan has worked to prove to MSNBC that he is
a bigot in analyst’s clothing, they have continued to reward him with a
high salary, limousine rides and a national platform for his racially
inflammatory remarks. This is another example of the same white
privilege that allows Don Imus to continue making good money after
referring to a group of black women as “nappy headed hoes.”
Not only does MSNBC need to fire Pat Buchanan, they need to ask
themselves why they didn’t get rid of him long ago. Is it because so
many millions of Americans think the way he does? Is it because they
simply don’t care what he says? Or perhaps it’s the obvious – that
disrespecting black people is at the bottom of the political priority
list for most major organizations.
The saddest truth in the world for black people is that even our
friends have a hard time respecting us. We end up stuck between
Republicans who want to kill us and starve our kids, and Democrats who
care about almost none of the issues that matter to our community. Over
the last two months, when MSNBC celebrated reduced unemployment as a
victory for the Obama Administration, they failed to make note of the fact that black unemployment has gone up over the same period of time.
Our agenda only matters when it happens to be their agenda; but I
argue that it’s time to speak clearly about the black agenda.
While I am not entitled to tell anyone how to react to Pat Buchanan,
MSNBC or anyone else, I encourage people of color to honestly ask
themselves whether our friends or our enemies have very much respect for
our community. If this were the court of law and we were reviewing the
evidence, I argue that the verdict would be abundantly clear. Firing
Pat Buchanan is the least this network can do and the firing should be
followed by an apology to us all. Buchanan brings few redeeming
qualities to MSNBC, and President Griffin knows this.Dr. Boyce Watkins is a Professor at Syracuse University and founder of the Your Black World Coalition.

The film studios have so little interest in all-black films that even Hollywood royalty like George Lucas struggled to find a distributor for his latest work, Red Tails. Lucas didn’t mince any words when explaining to Daily Show host Jon Stewart the source of the problem:

It’s because it’s an all-black movie. There’s no major
white roles in it at all. It’s one of the first all-black action
pictures ever made.

Lucas spent 23 years making the film, which is based on the true
story of a crew of African American pilots who fought in World War II
and helped start the civil rights movement. “I financed it myself. I
figured I could get the prints and ads paid for by the studios and that
they would release it,” he explained to Stewart. “And I showed it to all
of them, and they said, ‘Noooo. We don’t know how to market a movie
like this.’ It’s not green enough.” And by green, Lucas means profitable.
These are the same yahoos who brought us Mars Need Moms, a
film that lost over $100 million. A whackadoodle story about motherless
space aliens strikes these dunderheads as a better investment than a
classic tale about real American heroes. Because they happen to be black.
Get it together, Hollywood.

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

From casual to pandering to deadly, there have been several
disturbing reports about anti-Asian American racism in the news. In the
more casual forms of racism, it seems that the whole using someone’s
name as a way to retrieve an order at fast food places has gone horribly
awry. About a month ago a Chick-Fil-A cashier at a store in Irvine,
California assigned racist names to two customers and even typed them
into the printed receipts (images here).
And, just in the past few days, a woman went into a Papa John’s pizza
chain in New York City and got called a racist name on her receipt (see that receipt here). Here’s an idea – maybe we could just go back to the “we’ll call your number when your order is ready?” system.AngryAsianGrrlMN sums this up well when she writes:

This is the kind of casual racism that isn’t talked
about, but that Asian people deal with on a regular basis. We are the
invisible minority, and we rarely get the kind of attention that other
minorities do.

I’ll just state the obvious here and point out that these incidents
didn’t happen in the distant past or some rural backwater, but in
supposedly tolerant, cosmopolitan urban areas in the present, putatively
post-racial era.
The pandering form of anti-Asian American racism is coming through,
not surprisingly, the presidential campaign. John Huntsman, Republican
candidate and former Ambassador to China, is fluent in Mandarin and,
rather remarkably, spoke Chinese during the Republican presidential
debate recently. Huntsman and his wife have also adopted children from
China and India. All this “foreign-ness” has proven too tempting for
some of his political opponents who are using these facts to pander to
peoples’ racism and xenophobia. As AngryAsianMan notes:

“It’s an election year, so you know what time it is.
Racist campaign ads! This latest gem is from someone claiming to be a
Ron Paul supporter, attacking Republican presidential candidate Jon
Huntsman for his “un-American” values.
… Here we go with another round of equating China with all things evil.
Complete with an extra Oriental soundtrack — never has Mandarin made to
sound so sinister. [This video] is one of the most unabashedly racist attack ads we’ve seen in a while.

The ad asks whether Huntsman’s values are “American” values or
Chinese? And, then rather sinisterly photoshops Huntsman into a
portrait of Chinese leader Mao Zedong while thoroughly mixing the fear-mongering metaphors and comparing him to the “Manchurian Candidate.” This kind of strategy is what some people refer to as “dog whistle racism,”
in other words, political campaigning that uses coded words and themes
that appeal to conscious or unconscious racist concepts and frames. For
example, the terms ‘welfare queen,’ ’states’ rights,’ ‘Islamic
terrorist,’ ‘uppity,’ and ‘illegal alien’ all activate racist concepts
that already exist within a broader white racial frame.
Among the most disturbing news are the details that are emerging surrounding the death of Private Danny Chen
in October, 2011. Chen, 19, grew up in New York City’s Chinatown, and
is thought to have committed suicide in Afghanistan after enduring
racial taunts and bullying (although some now question whether it was
suicide at all). A group of his superiors allegedly tormented Chen
on an almost daily basis over the course of about six weeks in
Afghanistan last fall. They singled him out, their only Chinese-American
soldier, and spit racial slurs at him: “gook,” “chink,” “dragon lady.”
They forced him to do sprints while carrying a sandbag. They ordered him
to crawl along gravel-covered ground while they flung rocks at him. And
one day, when his unit was assembling a tent, he was forced to wear a
green hard-hat and shout out instructions to his fellow soldiers in
Chinese.ethnic slurs. At other times, they forced him to do push-ups or
hang upside down with his mouth full of water.

Chinese Britons are often referred to as a "silent" or "hidden" minority. For although we are the fourth-largest minority ethnic group in the UK, we are virtually invisible in public life, principally the arts, media and politics.
On
the surface, the Chinese seem relatively content and well-to-do, with
British Chinese pupils regularly outperforming their classmates and
Chinese men more likely than any other ethnic group to be in a
professional job. Consequently, we are often overlooked in talks on
racism and social exclusion.
But academic and economic successes do not negate feelings of marginalisation. A 2009 study by The Monitoring Group and Hull University
suggested that British Chinese are particularly prone to racial
violence and harassment, but that the true extent to their victimisation
was often overlooked because victims were unwilling to report it.
Growing
up in the north of England in the 80s, I had few role models. Popular
culture was dominated by white faces and occasionally black and south
Asian, but never east Asian. I'm not sure that much has changed since.
Shouts
of "Jackie Chan!" and kung-fu noises from random strangers continue to
greet me in the street, perhaps followed by a "konichiwa!" Just a few
days ago, a friend was having a post-hangover drink in a trendy east
London pub, only to be accused by the manager of being a DVD pedlar
hassling his clients.
Going to drama school in London was a
revelation; I was told I couldn't perform in a scene from a play because
it had been written for white people. The scene was two girls sitting
on a park bench talking about boys, and the year was 2006. Worse was
when it came from my contemporaries; one (white, liberal, highly
educated) helpfully suggested I did a monologue from The Good Soul of
Szechuan instead, and another rushed up after one performance to tell me
how delighted her parents had been that I'd spoken perfect English (I'm
from Bradford).
In hindsight it was good preparation for a
profession where, on my first job, the Bafta-winning director chuckled
to everyone on set that I'd trained in kung fu, and where any character
who speaks in some kind of dodgy east Asian accent is considered
hilarious.
I have friends who are shocked that such things
actually happen. They are usually most surprised at the fact that it's
happened to me. Why? I suspect mainly because, like them, I am part of
the educated middle class, and things like that don't happen to people
like us.
Well, they do, and quite often. And frankly, it isn't
surprising that prejudices are rife in a country whose media perpetuates
the very images that evoke stereotypes and cultural misunderstandings:
Chinese characters rarely appear on our television screens, but when
they do, you can bet they'll be DVD sellers, illegal immigrants, spies
or, in the case of last year's Sherlock, weird acrobatic ninja types.
Many Chinese viewers were outraged at the portrayal of east Asians in
this show, but typically, few complained.
Sadly, the British
Chinese are reticent about speaking up for themselves, and simply do not
have the numbers to make the same noise the black and south Asian
communities do, whose vociferous and galvanising voices have been making
waves against racism for decades. Racism is one of those horrendous,
soul- and confidence-crushing things that, when faced with, you'd much
rather forget or pretend didn't exist. So we tend to brush it off,
pretend it never happened, or laugh along with the rest rather than come
across as bad sports. We Chinese have become dab hands at this, living
up to the stereotype of the smiling but silent Chinaman.
If we are
to make progress in understanding the true extent of racism in this
country, we all need to be a lot braver in confronting truths about how
we live. It's about swallowing our pride and being less afraid of
telling the world how racism affects us and really thinking about the
people across Britain who have come to accept racism as a part of life.
It's about standing up in classrooms, television studios, offices, pubs
and public transport, not just for ourselves, but for friends and
strangers, too.
Denial gets us nowhere. But awareness, thoughtfulness and courage could make millions of lives so much better.